


gold cage(hostage to my feelings)

by awesomeaislin



Series: Carry On Countdown 2018 [5]
Category: Carry On Series - Rainbow Rowell
Genre: Fluff, M/M, Mythology - Freeform, NOV 29 - Mythology
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-29
Updated: 2018-11-29
Packaged: 2019-09-02 00:43:02
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,806
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16776205
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/awesomeaislin/pseuds/awesomeaislin
Summary: Essentially a Persephone/Hades AU for the fifth day of Carry On Countdown."I don’t normally pay any attention to the goings on above. What difference does it make to me what they do on the surface. My domain is here. They want me here. They do not want me there.But then I hear laughing and humming above me, and I just know I need it. I need to have that sound. I need something besides the darkness.So I take the chariot, and I go to the surface, and I take it back here with me."





	gold cage(hostage to my feelings)

**Author's Note:**

> Idk I tried, I wanted to do this, but I don't love the way it turned out.

**SIMON**

I’m helping pick flowers when it happens. 

I’m picking flowers because Penny told me to. I really only do anything because Penny tells me to. To be fair, she’s pretty much in charge of me. The god’s created me so that she could have someone to keep her company. 

So I do what Penny says, and she’s my best friend. I love her more than anyone in the world. I don’t think I need anything more than the two of us. But she’s not always here. 

I’m supposed to be this lovely, light, and joyful entity, but there’s always been this pull away. A pull somewhere else. 

I go to pull up a particularly beautiful flower. Penny will like it. She might even give it to Micah. It resists my fingers though. It isn’t pulling up as easy as all the other plants. I tug harder. Still, it refuses to be picked. 

I pull as hard as I can and the earth around its roots began to crack open and gape. I pull one more time and suddenly I’m staring into an abyss. 

I can hear the galloping of horses from within. That’s surely not right? I should go get Penny, but before I can a golden chariot emerges from within the hole. 

“Baz,” I say in shock. I’m supposed to be respectful. He’s the god of the underworld. He’s so far above my station, but I’m too surprised to have proper manners. 

“Simon,” He says. His face is a stone. I don’t know what he’s thinking. We’ve never spoken before. 

Before I can react, he reaches out and pulls me into the chariot.

“Penny!”

**BAZ**

I’m just having a normal day of judgment when I hear it, or when I hear him I suppose.

I don’t normally pay any attention to the goings on above. What difference does it make to me what they do on the surface. My domain is here. They want me here. They do not want me there.

But then I hear laughing and humming above me, and I just know I need it. I need to have that sound. I need something besides the darkness. 

So I take the chariot, and I go to the surface, and I take it back here with me. 

**Penny**

When I go looking for Simon, he’s not where he’s supposed to be. But when is Simon ever where he is meant to be? 

So I’m not immediately worried. He’s smarter than people think. It’s not like he’s going to get lost. Or at least it’s probably not like he’s going to get lost. 

But when he doesn’t return for dinner, I know something is wrong. Simon always comes home for dinner. 

When he hasn’t returned by the next day, I start searching. Simon would never stay away from this long. He loves our home. He’s loyal. And he’s gone. 

So I start searching.

**BAZ**

He’s pouting at me. 

I think it’s pouting at least. I don’t think anyone has ever pouted at me before. It’s normally just screaming, or crying. Never pouting. 

“Let me out,” He pouts. His moles are a work of art, and when he moves his face like this they move too, it’s like a whole new set of spots to memorize.

I just roll my eyes at him. I’m not dumb enough just to let him go. He’ll never come back. 

“Penny will come look for me,” He threatens. He’s really not very threatening though. I am, but he doesn’t seem scared. 

“Penny?” I ask as if I’m not sure who he means. 

“Penelope,” He says exasperated. 

He doesn’t give up easily. I think I like that about him. I don’t give up easy either. “Ah, yes, not to worry, she won’t think to look down here.” 

“She’s smart,” He’s folded his arms now and I think he might be trying to glare at me. He’s not very good at glaring. 

“I’m smarter,” I promise. 

**PENNY** **  
** I go out looking for Simon because I cannot sense where he is. I spend days looking. He isn’t anywhere. I’ve been everywhere, but he is nowhere to be found. 

**SIMON**

Eventually, he abandons making fun of me to go do some ‘work’. I wonder what work means for the god of the underworld. Probably making people miserable for eternity. 

I don’t know what he wants from me. I don’t know why I’m here. All I know is that Penny must be looking for me, and I can only hope that eventually she gets to me. I don’t think this is going to end well either way. 

**PENNY**

It’s hopeless. I find myself in a meadow, and I think it’s over. I don’t think I’ll ever find him. It has been nine days.

But then I see her. Agatha has found herself in this meadow with me. 

“What are you doing here?” I ask. Surely this isn’t a coincidence. Agatha doesn’t just show up places. She always comes for a reason. 

“I thought I heard a cry for help,” She shrugs. “So I came to find it.”

“It must have been Simon,” I gasp. 

“Simon?” She asks. “What happened to Simon?”

I roll my eyes, “I don’t know, Agatha, that’s why I’m looking for him. He never came home. It’s been days.”

“Why didn’t you ask for help?” She asks. And she’s right, why didn’t I ask for help? There are plenty of gods who could help. “We can go to Helios.”

**SIMON** **  
** I think time down here is different than on the surface. I think time passes slower down here. Maybe that’s the boredom. Baz won’t let me go anywhere other than this room because he doesn’t trust me. It’s not like I’d know how to escape here even if I tried. 

He does bring me dinner every night though, and every night I refuse to eat it. I can’t eat it. I know what happens if I do. It means that this is it. I won’t be able to leave. 

I’ll never see the animals, or the flowers, or Penny ever again. So I do not eat anything. I do not consent to this. 

**BAZ**

He doesn’t like me at all, but it doesn’t really matter that much. 

But it does.

Because he doesn’t smile, and he doesn’t laugh, and he doesn’t shine. 

**SIMON**

Baz doesn’t normally stay that long, but tonight he does. He just sits outside the wall trapping me inside and stares. I think he’s thinking about something. He’s probably just plotting what evil thing to put me through next. Not that he’s really put me through anything, but he could be plotting to and that’s the point. 

“Why are you still here?” I ask him because really we’re past the point of politeness. “I’m not eating the food, I’m not talking to you, and you’re not talking to me. Why are you still here?”

He shrugs. I’ve never seen him shrug before. I guess he’s picking up my bad habits. 

“Don’t you have something better to be doing,” I question because he should. Surely being the god of the underworld is a demanding job. People die every day. It’s busy. 

“No,” He sighs. 

“Don’t you have someone else to bother?”

“No.” 

And I suddenly get it. He’s lonely. That’s why I’m here because he’s lonely, so he just took someone else. I guess I understand, but the methods are still vile. 

I might have said yes if he’d just asked. 

**PENNY**

When we arrive at Helio’s palace, I demand he tell me if he can see Simon. He must be able to see Simon. The sun shines everywhere surely this is no exception. 

“I can’t see him,” He says matter of factly. As if that’s at all matter of fact, if Simon isn’t on earth then where is he. “He’s not on the earth’s surface.”

“Obviously he’s not here, you mor-” I start, but Agatha cuts me off. 

“Sorry, she’s upset,” She chuckles. “Do you know where he is, if not on earth.”

“The Underworld, Baz took him. They’re going to get married.”

“They’re what?!?” I exclaim. “He’s not allowed to do that. He needs Davy’s position. Davy created Simon, and is king of everything, so Baz needs his permission.” I get ready to storm the underworld, to kill Baz, to take Simon home. Where he belongs. 

“He has Davy’s permission.”

I’m going to murder Davy.

**SIMON**

Baz doesn’t normally tell me things going on on Earth, so I know something bad is happening when he starts getting me up to speed on current events. 

“Penelope turned on Olympus because I took you,” He says. He looks like he might regret it. I don’t know why. It’s not like the fact that the plants don’t grow up there affects him down here. 

“Serves them right,” I tell him because it does.

“Them?” 

“The other god’s should let me go back to Penny,” I say. “Baz, I want to go home.”

“I’m sorry.” He shouldn’t be apologizing. He never apologizes. 

“It’s not...I don’t...” I don’t know how to say what I want to. “I like it down here, but I like it up there too.”

“I’m sure she’ll get her way, you’ll be returned soon enough.” He shakes his head. He won’t look at me. I want him to look at me. 

**BAZ** **  
** The day has come. I knew it wouldn’t last forever. I knew it would end in flames. I knew someone would take Simon back. 

“Simon,” I start before I let him go. 

“It’s for the best,” He says. There are tears in his eyes. Why is he upset about leaving me? “Penny won’t grow the food, and the human’s are starving. I should go back.”

“Simon, you don’t have to go forever,” I tell him. I take hand and I wrap it around a pomegranate seed. “Do what you think it best.”

I think I might kiss him. Just this once. And then it will be over. I’ll never see him again. An eternity of misery. 

I just want to kiss him. Just once.

And then he kisses me. 

**SIMON**

I don’t know when I decided that I wanted to kiss him. All I know is I do. So I kiss him until he pulls away. 

“You should go,” he says. And I should. Of course I should go. It’s the right thing to do. The people need food. 

He leads me towards the steps out of the underworld, and I know Penny must be waiting for me at the top. I know what awaits is a life of light and happiness and flowers, but always with something missing. 

So I turn around, kiss Baz, shove the pomegranate seeds into my mouth, and promise I’ll be back for winter. 

I’ll be back for winter. 

**Author's Note:**

> I know this isn’t like strictly true to the mythology but like whatever


End file.
